Micah 5: Advent Times Two

Can you think of a time in your life where you were in danger and needed to be rescued? Maybe you were lost or trapped or just needing someone to save you from some undesired outcome.

I remember when I was a boy growing up in Winterset, Iowa. I lived on a dead end street that butted up against a cornfield. On the other side of the cornfield was a street and the city pool. Now there are houses there but back then there was nothing but fields and a row of hay bales. It has snowed quite a lot as it was prone to do in central Iowa. My best friend Dave and I were walking along the top of the hay bales. It had snowed so much that the snow was build up between the bales, leaving a level walking plane for us across the top. Then Dave stepped on the snow and sunk in between two of the bales. He sunk so far that his arms were up above his shoulder level and he couldn’t get out. He turned back and forth trying to get up and I finally got him pulled back up.

We sat there and laughed, out of breath. Then he looked into the hole and noticed how he had carved out a perfect oval shape in the snow that went all the way down. He looked closer and closer and then all of a sudden he fell in upside down. At this point he’s just feet kicking in the air. I could hear him faintly through the snow, which his body had sealed saying, “Cal, help me! Help!” He was stuck and couldn’t do anything about it. So I grabbed his legs and somehow got him pulled out.

Micah had been prophesying about the judgement of God that was coming upon Israel and Judah due to their breaking the covenant. They had rebelled against God and would face judgement. Still, there were a faithful remnant of people who Micah assured would be restored when Messiah came to rule the Earth. The turn comes in chapter four, which I preached last week. It’s an abrupt turn from the message of judgement to a message of hope and restoration.

Micah was encouraging the remnant of righteous ones that were still faithful that they should cling to hope because the Lord God had a plan for their rescue and restoration. It wouldn’t happen when they planned or in the way they likely would have imagined. But Messiah was coming to rescue and restore. Let’s read Micah chapter 5, beginning with verse 1.

Micah 5:1–15 ESV

1 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. 2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; 6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border. 7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. 9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off. 10 And in that day, declares the Lord, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots; 11 and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds; 12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes; 13 and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands; 14 and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities. 15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.

Pray

Absolutely central to the book of Micah is the promise that:

I. God will send His promised King to reign on Earth and Israel will be restored.

In this section we find find what is thought to be one of the most famous passages in the Bible. Verse 2 is routinely read during the Christmas season as it is Micah, giving some fairly specific criteria that this coming, promised King would have to meet. In the Old Testament, God gave clues about the identity of the coming King. It was prophesied that He would be from the line of David. God made the promise to David in His covenant with him that there would be an heir of David sit on the throne forever. David was from Bethlehem, which is why it is referred to as “the city of David.” Here we have Micah telling the Jews and telling us that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem as well.

Micah 5:2 ESV

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Bethlehem was not a big city. It was insignificant nationally and globally other than being where David was from at that point. This was not New York City or Chicago, or Cairo, or Jerusalem. I guess you could look at it like Dixon. They had David and we had Regan. (smile) Not really the same thing.

Routinely in Scripture, God uses what the world sees as insignificant things to do astounding things.

Anyway, from this insignificant place was going to come the one who was sent to rule on God’s behalf. The Messiah. The Promised One. The one who would be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us.

His coming forth is said to be” from of old, from ancient of days.” His authority extends through eternity past. He was part of the sovereign plan of God. From ages past, He was set to come and rule and reign.

We have the whole Word of God now and the ability to look back at events that have already happened. The prophets struggled to understand from the glimpses they saw that hidden in this mystery of God’s plan of redemption was not just one advent of the Messiah but two advents. He would come twice. Now, they didn’t fully understand this.

Ephesians 3 shows us that the fact that Messiah would be Savior was hidden from the prophets. The prophets had a glimpse of what this would look like but still wrestled with understanding what their prophecies meant in full. One scholar I read said,

Exalting Jesus in Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk Israel Will Be Restored When Messiah Reigns on Earth (Micah 5:1–9)

It’s easy to understand why the prophets would struggle with this. God allowed them to have glimpses into the future, but for them it was like looking at a mountain range off in the distance. We can relate to them in this. From miles away the mountain peaks all look very close to one another. Stand on one of those peaks, however, and you will notice that deep canyons or vast valleys separate them—they’re really not close together at all. When the prophets saw events in the future, they had no way of knowing the time gaps between them. And in the case of the Messiah, God shielded from the prophets the knowledge that He was going to send the Messiah not once, but twice, and there would be a lengthy period of time between the two.

He would go on to point out that this is one reason that Jews today don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah. He doesn’t fit their expectations of what Messiah would be like. Isn’t that just like humans. We develop expectations and when people don’t meet what we are expecting, instead of taking it as is, we get upset and reject it. It happens all the time.

The Jews were expecting a political king who would once and for all conquer the enemies of Israel. They expected a military leader. They certainly didn’t expect someone who would be crucified. They rejected Him as cursed. They knew the scriptures.

Deuteronomy 21:23 ESV

23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

They understood the Messiah to come one time and not two. They were mistaken. They acted out of wrong belief. If we have wrong beliefs we will act out of them. This is why good doctrine and knowing the whole council of God is so important.

It is a little hard for us to understand in hindsight that somehow they missed the fact that Messiah as a suffering servant is all over the Old Testament. Micah was serving at the same time as Isaiah, who has some of the most profound prophecies about Messiah in His much longer book.

Isaiah 53:3–6 ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:12 ESV

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

So, in this first section of the chapter there is a picture of the first advent of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah of God and then there is a clear picture of the reign of Christ upon His second coming.

When I was teaching Bible full time in West Des Moines, Iowa, I had students who were part of the Iowa Wild Triple A Hockey Program. They came from all over the world to play hockey and in order to keep their schedules similar, many of them attended our private Christian school. Some of these guys had never opened a Bible before so I had to start at the very beginning with the big number being the chapter and the small number being the verse. When I came to talking about Jesus returning for His church as a conquering King, one of my foreign students sat back and asked, “does that mean we get another Christmas?” No, it’s going to be very different. But they Jews didn’t understand that.

II. When the promised King reigns on Earth, Israel will be healed.

A. Healed from finding security in the wrong things. (v. 10-11)

They trusted in their army and the might of their national defense rather than in the Lord. They broke covenant in this way. But when Jesus reigns on Earth, there will be no need for armies to defend the people. For Jesus is their security. There will be peace.

Micah 4:3 ESV

3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;

B. Healed from following unwise sources of counsel and false teachers. (v. 12)

The people had trusted in false counsel. When Jesus reigns on earth, all false counsel and false teaching will be destroyed.

C. Healed from false worship (v. 13-14)

Israel and Judah had been rampant with idolatry going back even to the last days of the reign of David’s son, King Solomon. When Jesus finally reigns on the earth there will be no temptation to worship anyone or anything else. He is the one true God, the King eternal, and all false gods will be destroyed. They would be rescued from worshipping idols when Jesus reigns on earth. What a day that will be!

D. Rescued from its enemies (v. 15)

God will take vengeance on the nations that are not obedient to Him.

What we need to understand is that the reason that both Israel and Judah were in the situation they were in was because behind all of those national sins of hoping in the wrong thing for security, worshipping idols, and following false teachers was a long list of personal choices that the people had made to live lifestyles of rebellion against God. They found their personal identity in what William Curtis describes as “a lifestyle that rejected God’s covenant, commands, and counsel. As a result, they did not find their identity in their position as God-fearers; they found their identity in their participation with secular culture.”

“...Their individual choices led to both personal and national judgment.”

III. Good News for Them/Good News for Us

Israel needed rescued. In fact, they still need it because they still do not accept Jesus and find their identity in Him. They were in a desperate situation and if God didn’t step in, they would be wiped off the face of the earth.

A King who came… a King who is returning.

“Michael Bentley writes: “Those who have the assurance that their sins have been forgiven, and who have dedicated their lives to the service of the Lord, experience many spiritual blessings. They know security from all their fears, and they are aware of the peace of God in every area of their lives.”7 This is the blessedness of which David sang of old:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

…

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

…

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever. (Ps. 23:1, 3–4, 6)”

7 Michael Bentley, Balancing the Books: Micah and Nahum Simply Explained (Durham: Evangelical Press, 1994), 64.

Richard D. Phillips, Jonah & Micah, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Iain M. Duguid, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010), 268.